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Your body is having conversations you can’t hear. In laboratory experiments, cell exposure to common sound frequencies, at a frequency of 440 Hz, significantly changed genetic activity and reduced adipose cell formation by about 15%.
In a new study, Japanese scientists have found that something as simple as playing a musical note near cells on a laboratory plate can trigger Notable Biological Changes.
The cells responded to small mechanical vibrations of sound, activating a cell phone that surrounds Enzima Fak eo Gene Ptgs2, which influenced the amount of fat stored by cells.
Although still in the early stages and tested only in cell cultures, the discovery suggest that The sound can one day be used to guide cell behavior in domains such as wound healing or metabolic healthA, without medications or surgery.
The results of the, published this Wednesday in Communications Biology reveal that continuous exposure to sound reduced the development of adipose cells by 15%.
Researchers compare the effect to the fact that the cells “feel” physically the sound waves, quase as if they could hear through mechanical stimuli.
The discovery may eventually lead to new therapeutic approaches to manage weight or heal wounds, Since we begin to understand how the daily sounds around us – from music to traffic noise – may be silently affecting our biology without knowing it.
How sound waves communicate with cells
Scientists have spent decades to study the way cells react to physical stimuli, how to pushed, pulled and squeezed. But so far, no one had analyzed the form how cells react to sound wavesthat create tiny but very frequent vibrations.
According to the researchers team built a special configuration to reproduce different sounds directly on plates that contain rat muscle cells.
Used a vibratory plate made of special plastic To generate three types of sounds: A tone of 440 Hz (The note “a” of a piano), A 14 kHz acute tone (at the upper limit of human hearing) and white noise (as static).
The sound pressure was about 100 Pascal, similar to what the deepest cells of our body can feel during normal activities.
After Only two hours of sound exposurethe cells involved in the experience showed Changes in 42 genes. When the sound continued for 24 hours, 145 genes showed altered activity.
Some genes responded quickly and then returned to normal, while others remained altered for hours.
Researchers found that sound waves activate structures called FOCAI AdhesionsS, which are like the “hands” that cells use to grab what surrounds them. When these adhesions feel sound vibrations, they activate a protein called Focal Adhesion Quinase (FAK)that triggers a chain reaction inside the cell.
This reaction includes the activation of a gene called Ptgs2/Cox-2, that helps produce a substance similar to a hormone, called PGE2which is involved in inflammation and other cellular processes.
The effect of sound on adipose cells
When investigators exposed the adipose cells under development to sound waves during the first three days development, the number of mature adipose cells It was much smaller.
The sound waves PThey are inhibiting the normal maturation process of adipose cells. This effect occurred both the cells received continuous sound for three days, just want two hours of sound per day for three days.
According to researchers, this may be happening because sound waves create an effect similar to that of placing the cells on a hard surface.
Previous studies have shown that adipose cells do not develop so well on hard surfaces compared to the soft. Sound waves can induce cells to feel that they are in a firmer environment.
The reaction of cells varied according to the frequencythe intensity and standard of the sound. Both low and high frequency sounds affected cells, although sometimes differently.
Even the change in the sound wave standard From a smooth sinusoidal wave to more busy triangular or square waves changed the way cells react.
A cellular density It also played an important role. The cells that grew close to each other sometimes reacted oppositely to cells that grew farther away when exposed to the same sound.
Although this investigation is still in its initial phase, it raises fascinating questions about the way the sounds of everyday life may be affecting Our cells without realizing it.
The tinnitus of your refrigerator, the music of their headquarters or the noise of trucks that pass may be creating small physical changes on your body at the cellular level.
Sound is a force that shapes the behavior of our cellsaffecting us to too small levels to be noticed-but too important to ignore.
